


Request for Remedy

by Here_to_procrastinate



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Double age regression?, Hurt Number Five | The Boy, Kidnapping, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Protective Siblings, Sexual Harassment, kind of?, that might be the whole story: me hurting five
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:34:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26424190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Here_to_procrastinate/pseuds/Here_to_procrastinate
Summary: Number Five is a paradox, an antinomy. The universe does not agree with that.His mind also regresses to that of a thirteen year old. He might have to do something that he did not do in a really long time: Ask for help.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy)
Comments: 70
Kudos: 317





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set after the second season. But there are no Sparrows. Because I don't want them there. And Ben is still a ghost. Because I want him there. Actually a lot of canon is ignored. Have fun!

It was in the middle of a conversation with Klaus when Five first noticed that something was wrong. Or better an argument actually.

Five honestly wasn’t sure if he had enough social skills to have a conversation without insulting someone. Which was totally fine by him and most of his siblings. The exception was Luther, but who cares about Luther?

So Klaus and Five had a discussion about a topic that Allison brought up a few days ago. She thought that now that the apocalypse was over all of them should start doing something normal with their life. After a really long fight with literally everyone – except Vanya – Allison obviously won. 

So now Allison and Klaus wanted to open a coffee shop – they had very different views about serving alcohol – and Luther and Diego wanted to start a fight club to show the little man how to fight for himself. Five really didn’t want to know how that would work out. Vanya started giving Violin lessons again and that leaves Five. And so they came up with this ridiculous idea for him. He should start going to school.

“What’s wrong with it? You could meet a lot of people your age!”

“They are not my age, Klaus! Most of them could probably be my grandchildren!”

“But Vanya and Allison are right! This could be your second chance! To live a normal life you know? Maybe make some friends or do whatever it is that could make your bitter little heart happy. I mean what did you do in the last forty five years? Killing people, being in love with a mannequin and working with that weird ass Handler?”

Just the thought of her made Five cringe. She might be the only person he ever really feared. Even though he would rather chop off his own hand than tell that somebody. He was pretty sure she still wasn’t dead. Klaus eyes got soft.

“Just give it a go, Five. You don’t have to worry about us anymore. Or about the world. Or the apocalypse.”

That was enough. This was becoming to emotional. With anger Five could work but not with feelings. The boy cursed an blinked away.

Klaus was left starring at thin air.

~

A few buildings further away Five was sitting on a chair and ordering a black coffee. As always the barista looked at him funny. And as always Five ignored him.

That conversation with Klaus was strange. And what was bothering the boy was not the feelings stuff – even though that had also been very unpleasant – but what Klaus had said about his last forty five years. Because he couldn’t remember. Or better he couldn’t remember what he did in the last last ten years. Everything was gone. On a hypothetical level he still knew that he spent his last years living in the apocalypse and killing people for the commission but no matter how hard he tried to, he could’t remember. 

“You’re regressing to the age of your body”, a voice beside him interrupted his thoughts.

When he turned to the voice he saw the Handler sitting right beside him. A shiver ran down his spine. He hated his body for betraying him.

“It’s the space-time continuum. It’s working against you because you’re a paradox. And because it’s easier to let your mind regress to your thirteen year old self than your body age round about forty five years you will be a child again in a few days. And not only your body but your mind too.”

Five felt as if he was about to puke.

“But.. I still know that I’m actually fifty eight years old!”

“Yes. And you will still know that in a few days. But you won’t feel like it.”

For the first time in a long, long time Five was speechless.

“But.. But isn’t there anything I can do?”

The Handler started full out laughing.

“Even if I knew why should I tell you? It will be wonderful! You will be so innocent again… You’re already so cute in this body, but imagine what I could do with you if I could bend you to my will. You will be my perfect little soldier Five. You and me forever.”

The woman started stroking Fives cheek. He slapped it away.

“Never. I will never again do what you tell me!”

The Handler gave a high laugh.

“Oh, Five… in a few days you won’t even remember me. Maybe you will think that you’re in a dream and actually still living in the apocalypse. I wouldn't know. I have no comparisons or facts to your situation. There never has been a case like yours before.”

The boy stared into his black coffee. This couldn’t be happening. The Handler put an arm around his narrow shoulders.

“And the best thing is: You can’t do anything against it. You’re completely powerless. I mean what could you do? Ask your siblings for help? Even if they would be able to help you, would you be able to ask for help? I mean have you ever asked someone for help in your entire life?”

The Woman ruffled Fives hair, gave him a kiss on the cheek and then she was gone. Five couldn’t move. He didn’t even react to the unwanted touching. He just sat there. It took at least three hours until he mooved again.

“Is everything fine young man? I think your mother is long gone? Do you need a lift home?”, the words of a bulky waiter startled him out of his trance. 

“No. No, everything"s fine.”

“Really? I could definitely give you a lift home.”

Just then Five noticed the lingering glance that the man was giving him. God, he hated this body. Were there already so many creeps when he really was this young? Or was it because he was out alone a lot?

“No. Thank you.”

~

Back home Klaus was still waiting for him to end their discussion. But Five just couldn’t handle him right now.

“Klaus, please. Not now.”

Klaus was startled by his little older brother saying please.

“Could… could you maybe tell the others that I have to talk to you. All of you. Please.”

Klaus didn’t know what to say. Five had just said please. Two Times. So the man just nodded.

“Are you – are you sick? Or something? Are you dying?!”

Five laughed.

“I wish it would be that easy.”

Back in his own room the boy just stared out of the window. He couldn’t believe that he would actually have to ask his siblings for help. He would have to... depend on them to look after him. He never in his life had to depend on someonelse before. What a joke. But what else was there to do? He couldn’t stand for killing people again. And the only other option would be killing himself. And… even in the apocalypse that has always only been a short-termed thought. He treasured life too much to do something like that. Especially cause he had fought tooth and nail to survive.


	2. Chapter 2

It was already evening when all of the siblings came together in the living room. The others were watching Five expectingly. The Boy tried to look everywhere except their eyes. Klaus coughed.

"So... why are we here, brother dear?"

As Five still didn't start talking, Luther scrunched his eyebrows.

"Just say what you have to, okay? I think we all have better things to do than watch you brood."

Diego gave the bigger man an evil look.

"Don't be such an ass. That's why it's so hard to work with you."

"I don't have to be nice to him. Five is never nice to me."

Allison groaned.

"Is this really an argument two grown men need to have?'

"He started it!", Luther said.

Diego rolled his eyes.

Finally Five started talking. No matter how unpleasant this conversation would be, he had to stop his brothers before someone lost his eyes.

"All of you know the commission, right? And the Handler. We thought she died in that barn in 1963."

The other Hargreeves nodded.

"She isn't dead. She... visited me."

No one really reacted to that statement, besides Alison who looked slightly worried. They knew that Five could look better after himself than all of them together.

"Ben wants to know if we have to kill her... one more time?", Klaus asked.

"Probably. I think she wants to take over the commission again. And she wants my help."

Diego laughed.

"Tough luck with that."

His other more sensitive siblings - read Vanja and Alison - gave him an annoyed glare.

"What is it?", Alison asked, "is she blackmailing you or something?"

"Not really..."

Klaus groaned.

"Sugar Plum, don't let us pull every word out of your mouth. Just tell us the tea~!"

Number Five took a deep breath.

"You know I'm actually a 58 year old man in the body of a Thirteen year old."

"Yes, you remind us of that often enough", Luther muttered under his breath. Allison elbowed him.

"I’m an antinomy. I shouldn't exist like this. I already knew that but I just thought that it would shorten my life span."

Now all of his siblings looked aggravated.

"Will you die or something?", Diego asked as empathetic as always.

Five rolled his eyes.

"No as I just said: I only thought that. But the Handler told me that the space-time continuum handles this stuff differently... I will regress. Not only my body but also my mind."

The other five - and Ben - stared at him dumbfounded. Klaus was the first to find his voice again. 

"So... you will be a real child again in a few days? One that won't bully all of us and can't fight against being dressed up?"

The boy gave his brother a dry look. Luther started laughing.

"That’s just too good to be true. It's kind of what you deserve after all of this I'm-above-you-behaviour."

“I will still be above you when I'm actually thirteen again, Luther", Five told the man without even looking at him, "but that is not the problem we’re facing here. She wants to recruit me. When I'm thirteen. Like Diegos crazy girlfriend-" “Not my girlfriend!“ “- Which went back to the Handler even after figuring out that she was the person responsible for her parents death. I don't know if I will be able to... resist her manipulation - as a child."

Five watched his siblings calculatingly. Vanya and Allison appeared to understand what he wanted to say. Diego und Luther looked like they were way to amused, by the thought of him being a child again, to be serious and Klaus looked disproportionately cheerful. He probably still thought about dressing him up.

Five cleared his throat.

"So... you know... I might - I don't really want to kill innocent people again. Or help crazy people to take over the world. Or destroy it. I already don't remember the last ten years of my life anymore. So in a few days - you know..."

Luther looked at him incredulously.

"Is that your way of asking for our help? Are you serious? Not even when you want something from us you can be nice? Or even tolerable?"

Five lowered his head. Suddenly the floor seemed to be highly interesting. Alsion kicked Luther in the shins and smiled sweetly at the boy.

"Obviously we will look after you Five. You don't have to ask for that. We will protect you."

"Right?", the woman asked forcefully.

The others nodded quickly. No one wanted to be the target of Alisons disappointment. Klaus put his arm around Fives shoulders. The boy cringed slightly at the touch but his Brother didn't seem to notice.

"Of course we will look after you my sweet, little brother! No matter if you are an old soul in a young body or a young soul in a young body!", Klaus declared dramatically.

"Yes. We have your back", Diego said way more sober.

Vanya smiled at Five slightly. Luther looked everywhere but at Five. He seemed a little bit ashamed of his former behaviour.

Five nodded.

"Okay. As I already lost so much of my memory in such a short time, I probably won't remember anything anymore in four or five days. Besides the basics.”

"What you mean with probably?", Luther asked. The boy had to fight really hard to not insult his brothers intelligence.

"It's not exactly rock-hard science. I don't know how it will work out." 

"No problem, we will figure it out together", Vanya said and went up to Klaus and Five to give her little older brother a hug.

"Group hug!", Klaus exclaimed.

In no time Alison joined their embrace. Diego and Luther gave Five an awkward pat on the shoulder.

The boy thought that maybe - just maybe - it wasn't even that bad to ask for help.

~

The evening was kind of harmonic with all of them bonding over the agreement to protect Five. The boy was clearly ashamed but not even Luther made another comment to his situation.

So obviously the next morning had to be total shit. The Hargreeves just couldn’t have nice things.

Five woke up screaming and panting. Everything was sweaty. Where was Dolores? He was so hungry and thirsty. It was so hot. Only – he wasn’t really hungry or thirsty or hot. Was he laying in a – bed? A real bed? 

The boy looked around. Taking in his surroundings in a few seconds. A skill that you needed to survive when you were living in a dystopian world.

This was his room. His childhood room. Was he dreaming? But no. Dolores wasn’t there. No matter what he dreamed she was always with him. Even in his worst nightmares she was there. 

Startled out of his sleep by his brother screaming Klaus jumped out of the armchair that stood by Fives bed.

“What? Who? Are we being attacked? I’m ready!”

Klaus stood there shifting from one foot to the other as if he were a video game character, waiting to be chosen. Then he took in the sweaty boy in front of him and put his arms down.

“Oh. Five. What’s wrong? I guess you were the one screaming?”

Five nodded. He remembered now. He wasn’t living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland anymore. Klaus was sitting beside his bed because that was what the others decided yesterday. At all times there had to be someone with Five.

“Did you have a… nightmare?”

Five looked at his brother annoyed.

“Everything’s is fine, Klaus.”

“Okay. Little touchy there, are we sweetheart?”

Five snarled.

“I just woke up and couldn’t really remember why I am here and not starving in the apocalypse with a mannequin by my side. Sorry.”

Klaus smiled sadly at his little older brother and patted his hair: “There, there, darling.”

Five looked at him annoyed. Klaus coughed.

“Sooo… how old are you today? Or how old do you feel?”

“Around forty – I think. It’s the apocalypse I don’t really know what day it is.”

That was a lie. Five had counted every single day. He had been in the apocalypse for exactly 9638 days. Or that are the days he remembers.

"And what do you remember? Besides you know… your mannequin?"

Five scrunched his eyebrows.

"There was an apocalypse... two apocalypses! We stopped them."

"Yes. And?"

"There is an agency after me? I think?"

"Yup. Aren't there always bad guys? Although I think it's not the whole commission anymore. Just one really slimy woman with a hole in her head."

Klaus smirked at Five but the look in the boys eyes had become empty.

"Ben is dead."

Five looked at Klaus as if he desperately wished the other one would say 'No!' and pull Ben out of a hat like a magic-rabbit. Klaus wanted to lay a hand on the boys shoulder but this time he saw his brother flinch so he stopped the motion.

"I'm sorry Five."

"Not your fault."

A single tear fell from the boys eye. God, Klaus hoped they won't have to have this conversation every morning from now on, until Five stopped regressing.

"Maybe... if I had found a way to travel back in time earlier."

Five stared at his hands as they started to shimmer blue. Klaus laid his hands over those of his little brother.

"It's no use crying over spilled milk, Fivey! Besides: I can still see him. He also says that it is most definitely not your fault that he died and that you are his favourite broth – Hey! You ungrateful asshole! Who is always talking to you! I deserve to be your favourite brother!”

Seeing his brothers antics Five started smiling. And then his face became serious again. He survived the last few years in the apocalypse. Alone. He couldn’t allow himself to be this emotional over one single person.

~

The breakfast was awkward at best and catastrophic at worst. When Five blinked down without bothering to wake the still sleeping Klaus, most of his other siblings were already sitting at the dinner table.

It seemed as if Diego had tried to make pancakes. There was a burnt smell in the air and he still had flour in his hair. The man obviously didn't accomplish his goal. Nevertheless the table was set and all of them looked at Five awaitingly when he blinked downstairs.

“Vanya is out getting Donuts”, Diego harrumphed.

Five slowly nodded.

“Is there coffee?”

“Yes. Kitchen”, Luther said not noticing the strange atmosphere.

Five blinked into the kitchen. He heard a dull thwack from the living room, then a “Hey!” from Luther and a whispered “Be a little bit more insightful, ape man!” from Diego.

The boy took a sip of coffee. What a bunch of idiots. He blinked back into the living room.

Alisson looked at her older little brother calculating.

“Don’t drink too much of that it’s not good for kids!”

Five gave her an irritated look. Fortunately for everyone in the room that was the moment Vanya came back.

“I’ve got Donuts! And a Burger for Luther!”

“Thank god”, Diego muttered under his breath.

A few moments later everyone was eating. The others were still giving Five strange side glances from time to time. With more force than necessary the boy jabbed at his donut with a fork.

“Once I ran to you. Now I'll run from you. This tainted love you've given - I give you all a boy could give you, Take my – ohh, Donuts!”

Klaus came down the stairs singing and promptly stole Fives Donut. Alison gave him a pointed look. 

“Give the donut back! Five needs to eat more!”

With that Five put down his cutlery firmly. Enough was enough. 

“Stop this. Stop mothering me so much. All off you. I’m not fragile. I’m still older than you. If you need to dote on someone do it on each other. I’m a way more capable adult than you all. And I probably still will be in a few days when I’m an actual teenager again.”

With that said Five took his coffee and blinked out of the room. The others stared at each other.

“So…”

“Yeah…”

“Figures, that the little prick wouldn’t make it easy for us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo... I wrote a second chapter. Way quicker than I thought :D. And yes in this fic Lila went back to the Handler. I just don't need her at this point of the story. The next few chapters will also be about Five 'getting younger'. My question is: Do you also want one where he goes to school? Because I'm not sure if I want to write one or not...


	3. Chapter 3

Later that day, Vanya came to Fives room with a pot of coffee and a chessboard as peace offering. Five smiled when he saw his sister. They often did this in the past.

~~~

_Luther and Diego were fighting with each other while Alison and Ben tried to intervene. As always. At the beginning Five had also tried to stop their brothers, but after some time he had just let them be. He was a clever child; he knew that it was their way of coping with their life. So instead he played Chess with his favourite sister while the others were making a ruckus. Klaus sat beside them making dumb remarks from time to time._

_Five preferred to stay with his calmer siblings. Vanya never really liked talking and although Klaus always had something to say he wasn’t nearly as loud as Luther and Diego.  
Five always felt as if his thoughts were too loud. No matter where he was, he always perceived everything about his surroundings. He couldn’t stop calculating what could happen next or with what probability something would or wouldn't work out. So, he preferred a quiet surrounding to not get a head ache all the time._

~

_The chess playing ended when they turned eight and their real training began. They had no time to play anymore._

~

_When he was nine, Five told his mother about his problem and she told him that it wasn’t a problem but a gift._

_“There’s nothing wrong with you, dear. God just gifted you a little more than most people. You brain is more active than that of others.”_

_Then the women ran her fingers through the boy’s hair._

_“Do you want a cookie, sweetie?”_

~

_When he was ten Five had finally learned how to tune down his thoughts. But even then, he didn’t really develop a liking to talking to others. He found that most people were dull or tedious or both of it.  
But at the rare occasion that Vanya stood outside his room with a chessboard, he could never turn her down._

~~~

“Checkmate”, Vanya said.

“Congratulations.”

Vanya watched the boy thoughtfully.

“Everything okay? I’ve never won against you before.”

Five smirked.

“I just wasn’t able to train in the apocalypse. Otherwise I would have definitely vanquished you.”

The girl smiled.

“…You know, the others mean no harm, right? They just want to look after you.”

“Whatever. I don’t need them to.”

“But you do.”

The boy gave his sister a flat look.

“You do. And you know it. You just told us yesterday.”

“…whatever.”

“I think you have a problem with accepting help because there was no one to help you for such a long time.”

Five groaned. When did Vanya become so talkative and bold?

“And since when are you a therapist?”

Vanya looked at him pleadingly. 

“Can we please not talk about that?”

“But we have to talk about it sometime, Five.”

“Why? No one in this family ever talks to anyone! We all grew up to be emotionally repressed adults!”

“Yeah, and see where that led us? To two apocalypses! Normal families experience no apocalypses at all in their lives!”

“Why do I have to be the first one to open up?”, Five whined, “can’t we talk about Luthers daddy issues or Diegos hero complex or something?”

“But you know… that’s part of the problem. Everybody did talk to someone. Besides you. Luther and Alison talked to each other. Diego spoke with that Lila girl. Klaus always talks with everyone. Ben – okay I don’t actually know – but I just figured he talked to Klaus? So… that just leaves you.”

“And what’s with you?”

Vanya stared at Five clearly amused.

“I nearly caused the apocalypse. All of you talked to me!”

“…okay. I will think about it.”

Then Five realised Vanya eyes had become teary. She looked as if she was minutes away from a nervous breakdown just because of thinking of the first apocalypse.

“I know it’s hard Five. But I also bottled it all up way to long. And see how that worked out!”

Five thought, that he would rather cause the third apocalypse than open up to someone, but his heart hurt for his sister.

“Okay, Vanya. I will talk to you. Just not now.”

~

They ordered Chinese for dinner. It was a little bit mushy but still better than anything that anyone of them could cook. The over all mood in the room wasn’t super sunny but still better than at breakfast.

Vanya talked about her new student who – if you could believe her – was the next Mozart and Klaus told them that he served Absolut Grcic Pearspresso today at the coffee shop.  
That was all fine and dandy until Alison figured out that Absolut Grcic Pearspresso was Espresso with Vodka.

Five smirked as he watched the chaos unfold. Alison whacked Klaus with a flipper. Klaus threw Noodles at her but hit Diego instead. Diego emptied a glass of water over Klaus head and Vanya could only just save her Kung-Pao from the wine that Diego knocked over with his movement. It was a rather funny show.

Unfortunately, that was the moment in which Luther decided to have his first instance of insightfulness. Of all people his least favourite brother noticed that Five hadn’t really eaten. He mostly just shoved his rice from one side of his plate to the other side. Only taking a few bites from time to time.

“You should eat more. You haven’t eaten all day. You didn’t even eat that donut at breakfast.”

“Not hungry.”

That statement also drew Alisons attention, away from the noodles on her blouse to Five and Luthers conversation.

“Luther is right. You should eat more.”

“And we actually have twinkies!”, Klaus interjected cheerfully, Alison normally won’t let him buy sweets, “how can you not eat when we have such sugary goodnesses?!”

“I’m n –“

“Bullshit, how can you not be hungry? You haven’t eaten all day! Actually, I think I haven’t seen you eat at all since we came back to our timeline!”, Luther exclaimed.

“We can’t all eat as much as you do! We would trigger a famine! Besides I’m in a really small body and –“

“But you’re growing you need proteins!”

Five took a deep breath.

“And you won’t need anything in your life ever again if you interrupt me one more time, Luther! As I was saying I don’t need much food. And I hate twinkies.”

The boy gave the sweets a disgusted look.

“How can you hate twinkies?”, Klaus asked appalled as if Five had just committed a capital crime.

“I had a really bad experience with a dystopian twinkie, and it still haunts me to this day.”

None of his siblings seemed to think that the twinkie story was funny. The boy groaned. He felt Vanyas pleading look on him. Why did he had to make that promise? So time to be honest. Yeye.

“Okay. So, there wasn’t a lot to eat in the apocalypse. I adjusted. I don’t think I could actually eat a whole meal.”

“But you’re not in the apocalypse anymore, Five”, Vanya said softly, “just try to eat a little bit. Readjust.”

Five stared at the Chinese food in front of him that had gotten cold.

Simply readjusting? Could it really be that easy?

~

This night Alison sat down in the chair besides Fives bed after the boy had fallen asleep. In contrast to Klaus she stayed up all night to watch over her little brother. He looked so peaceful in his sleep. As if he was really just a kid.

It made her think of Clair. She wondered how her daughter was. She had to be seven now. A heart-clenching feeling of loss overcame her. Alison didn’t even notice that she started crying.

“What is wrong, Alison?”

Alison looked up into her brother’s face. She must have woken him up with her crying. He looked worried. His concerned look together with his ruffled hair made him look kinder than she had seen him in a long time.

Alison hiccuped.

“It’s just… my daughter.”

“You have a daughter?”, Five asked.

Right, she never even told him.

“I had a daughter… but I messed up. As I mess everything up, Five.”

Alison started crying even harder. Five stroked her arm even though he felt his body recoil at the touch. He felt so inept. He had no idea how to handle this outburst of emotions.

“Hey. It’s okay.”

“No... you don’t understand. I am the worst mother in the world… I rumored her. I rumored her all the time.”

Five swallowed. He didn’t know what to say to that as it was obviously wrong.

“It’s okay. We all mess up”, the boy snickered faintly, “Hell, we are all messed up.”

The woman smiled at her brother wearily. Seeing his sisters tear-streaked face Five felt himself getting weak. Damn, this age regression seemed to make him more emotional.

“Do you want to lay down?”

Alison blinked at him wide eyed. Fives first thought was that his sister was surprised that he was being nice.

But then the woman asked: “…Don’t you hate body contact?”

Five felt his heart miss a beat. So, she noticed.

“I think I can handle for one night.”

As Alison laid down beside him and put her head on his shoulder, he had to suppress all his reflexes not to withdraw. He really hoped he could handle it for one night.

“Thank you, Five.”

The boy faintly smiled. Despite his discomfort this was definitely worth it. 

…

The De-Aging was most definitely making him softer.

~

When Alison woke up again her brother already sat upright beside her. When she inspected him further, she saw the haunted look in the boy’s eyes.

“I killed people for them, right?”, he asked faintly.

Alison only stared at him but that seemed to be all the confirmation he needed.

“Why did I do that? I killed innocent people, Alison. I’m a monster.”

“Did you dream of them?”, she asked softly.

“Yes… but I don’t remember killing them.”

Five had tears in his eyes.

“Why did I do that?”

“You did it so you could come back to save the world. To save us. You’re not a monster.”

The woman took the boy's hand. Five winced at her touch.

“Why do I dream of it when I don’t remember it?”

“I don’t know… you said yourself that your situation is an unexplored domain of time-travel...”

“Why did I do that?”, Five asked again, “innocent people…”

“It’s okay Five, we all mess up”, Alison repeated the words the boy had told her a few hours ago.

Five sniffled.

“It’s not the same, Alison. You rumored your daughter. I killed hundreds of people.”

Alison stiffened beside him. Five thought she would push him away now. Instead Alison got as closely as possible without touching him.

“I firmly believe that you did what was the best option in your position. I might not have seen you in the past years, but I still know you. You are a good person Five. Although you try really hard not to show it.”

Five looked at her surprised.

“Thank you, Alison. Even though I don’t think you’re right on the good person stuff.”

His sister didn’t stop smiling at him.

“You don’t have to think that for me to believe it.”

They remained in that position for some time. Looking at each other. The woman with a soft smile on her lips and Five a wide eyed and completly astonished by what his sister had said.

Then the boy wiped away his tears and cleared his throat.

“If you tell Luther that I cried I will cut out your tongue.”

With that notion Five let himself fall back onto his pillows and turned away from his sister.

The women laughed quietly. That was her brother as she knew him.

~

Half an hour later Five stared grumpily at a cereal box in front of him. It said ‘Breakfast for the little man without need for a pan!’ in big, red letters. He hated his siblings’ humour. Maybe he should put laxative in everyone’s food for their next meal.

“Okay… how old are you today, cutie pie?”, Klaus asked and broke Five out of his chain of thoughts.

The boy raised an eyebrow.

“You know actually I’m still 58. But if you ask what I remember, then it would be the last thirty years. And the past few days. Since I started de-aging I guess. Even though I don’t know why.”

Whit an annoyed voice Five added: “And if you treasure your life at all stop it with those pet names, Klaus.”

While looking exaggeratedly hurt Klaus was actually extremely relieved by what was said. They won’t need to have another conversation about Ben when Five would always remember the last days.

“But why would you remember the last few days? They’re also from… your future-past or something, right?”, Luther asked while shovelling scrambled eggs into his mouth.

Five gave Luther a grossed out look.

“I don’t know. And I hate not knowing.”

“Hey, worse things happened, Five”, Vanya said soothingly, “we’re all here together and now you’re actually our age.”

“For one day”, the boy muttered.

Diego smirked at his brother.

“One last day of fun for you. After today Alison will mother you all the time! So… what have you always wanted to do?”

Alison smacked him with a newspaper.

“Yes! Five! Your last dying wish as an adult!”, Klaus declared.

Five sneered at him. Klaus laughed before getting serious again – if Klaus could even be serious.

“No but really, Ben also said you should decide what we could do today. And he’s my voice of reason!”

His little brother rolled his eyes.

“If he is your voice of reason, he did a pretty shitty job at reasoning you all you life.”

“Hey… I’m adorable and have at least one functional day a week!”

Alison smiled at her little brother reassuringly. Probably remembering the night before.

“But really: you should decide. You deserve a break.”

“But not something like… history museum or the library!”

“If you had spent more time reading in your childhood, maybe you wouldn’t think that an eggplant is a small elephant, Diego”, Five scoffed.

Diego turned red.

“Why do you always have to bring that up?”

But unfortunately the insult was not enough to get his brother to start a fight. All his siblings still looked at Five expectantly. In truth the boy just didn’t know what he wanted to do for fun. He didn’t know when the last time was, that he had ‘fun’.

“I will think about it.”

And with that the boy blinked away. Maybe a little bit cowardly of him but his dignity was already destroyed beyond repair. After all he already had all his siblings wanting to take care of him and smother him whenever possible.

~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, next chapter! But don't except me to always update this fic this fast, I'm actually baffled by my rapidity. So don't expect too much :D  
> And yes the younger he gets the more emotinoal Five will get. As I think it's a logical conclusion for his character to be less callous when he is younger.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me a little bit longer but it is also a little bit longer. There is a scene where sexual harassment is briefly a topic. But it's not vivid at all and it's just a really short scene.

_“One last day of fun for you. After today Alison will mother you all the time! So… what have you always wanted to do?”_

~

Eventually Five settled for the park. Obviously, there were a lot of complaints from his siblings, but when were there not?

"One day of fun and you want to take a stroll? You sure your mind is getting younger and not older?", Klaus whined.

Five rolled his eyes while Alison shooed them all out of the front door.

"I will buy you ice cream, Klaus", the woman bribed her brother shamelessly.

"And that is why you are my favourite sibling~!"

Momentarily the man stared into the air in front of him.

"No obviously it's not you Ben! You're nearly as evil as Five! And you don't have the advantage of coming in a such a cute little package!"

"I'm not cute!", his smaller brother said half-heartedly and somehow disgusted. Something about the word cute made him feel awkward. But he didn't remember what.

~

Over all Five thought that Klaus was a little unfair with his accusation of the park being a boring choice. Even though his consciousness was now 28 years younger than a few days ago he had still spent the last 17 years in the apocalypse. There was just Dolores, Sand and Hunger. From time to time some cockroaches but that was about it. There were no amusement parks, zoos or clubs - not that Five would actually be able to get into one now without breaking and entering - but the point was: how should he know what he enjoyed? So sorry when he went for the safest option that in his opinion was the park.

Nonetheless Klaus was kind of right. The park was a little boring. Even though Five would prefer eating a cactus to agreeing with one of his halfbrained siblings.  
And besides all the green trees and bushes and especially all the other humans were a sight for sore eyes. At least for the boy. He really wasn't alone anymore.

~

"It's like you’re living the life of Benjamin Button", Klaus said while eating his ice cream.

"Not really", Five deadpanned.

"Yes, it is! Just... different, you know?"

"No. My body is not de-aging while my consciousness gets older. And I won't be an infant in a couple of days."

"That's kind of sad actually. I would looove a baby Five~"

The boy stopped in track.

"One more word and I will dissect you with a toothpick, Klaus."

A few passer-by’s looked at the thirteen year old perplexed.

“You should raise your son to not say something like that in public, Sir”, an old woman told Klaus before she moved along.

Five felt as if his head might explode. He hated everything.

“One. Word”, he threatened his siblings.

No one thought he looked even slightly frightening. Allison coughed.

"So… how do you know ‘The curious case of Benjamin Button’? Actually: You know pretty much pop culture. How comes? I mean you didn’t live through the high time of media and internet development, right?"

Five shrugged.

"There wasn't a lot to do in the apocalypse. After acquiring every useful skill that I could teach myself, I read every book and watched every movie I could find. Obviously no movies until I found a functioning TV but after that… it helped with not getting crazy. Because I heard the voices of other people than myself, you know?"

Immediately the boy noticed that he had said too much. All his siblings looked at him pityingly. Before one of them could apologise for something they couldn’t change and were not responsible for, Five started walking faster. His gaze strictly turned away from their faces.

"Don't say anything. Nothing to do about it now. Besides it's my own fault. So, whatever."

Diego knit his eyebrows.

"How is it your fault?"

"I shouldn't have time travelled. Only thing our father was ever right about, and I didn't listen."

"I mean maybe. But it's one little mistake you made when you were thirteen. In the long run it's still father’s fault. He should have watched out for us more", Alison said.

The boy stuck his hands into the pockets of his shorts. He _knew_ it was his own fault.

"Possible."

And with that the conversation was over. 

~

“No. No that can’t be a real word!”

Five smirked at Diego.

“Do you want to google it again?”

All the Hargreeves sat together in the living room of their mansion playing Scrabble.  
After coming home from their strained walk, Alison decided that they would have a board game night. No one besides Vanya seemed really thrilled by that idea but Diego secretly loved board games, Luther would do anything that Allsion wanted him to do and Klaus was convinced by the promise that they would make cocktails. And Five – even though he would never admit that – was simply happy to spend time with his family. He really missed them the last 17 years – and probably also after that but he didn’t remember. 

“There is no way that Perpcunctorily is a real word!”

“If you weren’t so perpunctorily maybe you would know that it is a real word”, Five said arrogantly.

“It is”, Klaus said while sipping his Pina Colada, “just googled it. Means lazy.”

Diego tried to punch his smaller brother.

“You little shit!”

Five teleported to the other side of the room to dodge the blow and took a sip of his Magarita.

“Five you won again congratulation”, Vanya smiled.

“But only because you’re such a nerd!”

“I’m just better than you Diego.”

“So… Cluedo now?”, Allison asked.

“Another round of cocktails first!”, Klaus announced.

Allison seemed to ponder.

“Okay but no more for you Five, you don’t have a high tolerance in that body.”

The boy rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. He was having fun and he didn’t want to ruin it – also he was already feeling a little bit lightheaded. 

“Did you just… not disagree?”

Five gave Luther an annoyed look.

“Just let it go or I will make you eat a whole role of sandpaper.”

Luther sighed. Diego gave Five a calculating look.

“Do you have all those empty threats written down in a notebook or do you really make them up as you go?”

Five raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just highly creative when it comes to torture. Why? Do you want tips for your poor Avengers-imitation-part-time-job?”

Diego just grumbled something incomprehensible. But Luther chuckled at Diego and him getting insulted

“Oh, good. Everything’s back to normal. I just thought you were getting nicer, Five!”

The boy aimed a ballpen at Luther. Quickly the man disappeared under the table. He knew what his brother could do with a pen. He wasn’t sure how much of his assassin abilities Five still had but he wasn’t eager to find out. Fortunately – for the condition of the living room – that was the moment that Alison and Klaus came back from the kitchen.

“Cocktails, bitches!”

~

At the dawn of the next day Five was woken up by someone shaking him.

“Snap out of it, Five. Everything’s fine.”

Drenched in sweat the boy rose. He looked around startled and saw Klaus looking at him concerned. Immediately he felt his pulse settle down. His memories slowly came back.  
He had seen them all again. Laying there in the ashes. Cold and dead. He wished he could forget the image that has become engraved into his memories. The boy closed his eyes focusing on breathing.

“Why are you here again? Isn’t it Luther’s turn?”, Five asked to distract from himself.

Klaus understood the hint and didn't press the issue of his brother’s nightmare.

“I'm here because I just looove you so muuuch~”, Klaus said dramatically.

Five gave him a flat look.

“Did Luther offer you five dollar or something?”

Klaus sobered up. He seemed to crumple in on himself.

“No, actually...”

Five was surprised by his enthusiastic brother acting so depressed. Normally if you were together with Klaus he seemed to fill up the whole room, being the centre of everyone’s attention – or at least feeling as if he was. Now he looked so small as if part of him was missing.  
Five was no idiot. He knew that his brothers over the top showiness was a farce. It was Klaus type of self-protection. Just as Five insulted everyone.

“Today was – is Daves date of death...”

“Who is Dave?”, Five asked before he could stop himself. He hissed internally, that could have come out a little bit more empathetic.

Klaus looked taken aback.

“Oh, right... you don't remember. He was – is – the love of my life. I guess.”

Five forced himself to take his brother’s hand.

“I'm sorry.”

Klaus sniffled and smiled at his brother.

“Not your fault, little one.”

Five would let the pet name go. This one time. They were silent for a few moments.

“I just... didn't want to be alone tonight... Normally there is Ben but our connection is somehow shitty at the moment. All phone lines to the dead seem to be occupied~.”

Klaus chuckled.

“Silly, right? As if not being alone would change anything...”

“I – “ Five coughed slightly “- can actually understand that. That’s why I didn’t object that much against having one of you sit by me while I sleep. It reminds me that I'm not alone anymore when I wake up...”

The boy turned red. He had talked way too much about emotions these last days.

“Is that what you dreamed of? The apocalypse?”

Five pondered. He really didn't want to talk about this, but he also wanted to distract Klaus from his thoughts.

“I found your, you know? Your bodies, all of them. I buried you, every single one. I dream of that almost every night.”

Klaus heart hurt for his brother. He looked incredible young staring at Klaus not seeing him but rather the gruesome pictures from his memories. At that moment Klaus realised that his brother was now actually younger than him. He seemed more vulnerable than Klaus had ever seen him before.  
Five had always been this unstoppable force rebelling against their father. An arrogant little brat that had no respect for anyone whatsoever. Klaus had always admired that. Especially when Five had stood up to their father for Klaus.

“I never said thank you.”

“What?”, Five looked startled.

“You were the only one that ever told dear old daddy to not train with me in the mausoleum.”

“I only did that to agitate him.”

“And visiting me in there? Was that also just to agitate him?”

“...I was the only one able to do that. Because I can teleport.”

“We both know that the others would have never dared to do something against father’s will.”

Klaus winked.

“And you can’t tell me that you only did it to agitate dad. He didn’t know about that it was our dirty, little secret~!”

Five huffed. It was quiet for a short time, both brothers lost in their own thoughts. Klaus eyes started getting wet while he absently played with his dog-tag-chain.

“Come on… I can’t sleep anymore anyway. Tell me about Dave.”

Five faltered.

“I mean if you want to.”

Klaus eyes lit up: “Really? You want to hear about him?”

“Obviously. I just said that”, the boy grumbled.

Klaus smirked.

“You know when you keep being so nice I might actual start thinking you like me.”

Five hissed at him.

“I can be nice. I just don’t want to. That’s the difference between us. You couldn’t be less of a dumbass even if you tried.”

“Love you too, oh brother of mine!”

~

“Oh, my god! How many sprinkles did you get, Diego?”

“You didn’t specify which one you want!”

“…so, you just bought all of them?!”

“Yes.”

“Okay… just put them somewhere.”

Alison sighed. She would never again ask her siblings to bake with her. They were trying different kinds of cupcakes for their coffee-shop as Klaus insisted that only blueberry cupcakes were not enough variety.  
So now they were making Pecan Caramel, Red Velvet, Oreo and even some Peanut Marshmallow ones. Or better: they _tried_ to make them. But her siblings weren’t exactly helpful.  
Okay, Vanya helped her making the frosting and she wasn’t all that bad. But Luther had already knocked over two milk cartons, Klaus was only being ‘DJ’ as he called it – he was switching the song every minute and it was agonizing – and Five was just too pedantic to be any real help. 

“Five, how can measuring some sugar take so long?”

“It’s not perfect. It’s still half a Milligram too much!”

“This is not a chemical experiment it’s okay!”

Alison took the sugar from her smaller brother

“If the cupcakes suck now it’s not my fault!”, the boy grumbled.

Allison pulled her hair: “Can we _please_ not listen to ‘Every time we touch’ again Klaus?”

“But it’s a masterpiece! It’s better than Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony! Also: Five is twenty now, it’s his prime time! He should party~!”

“I don’t want to listen to that either, so don’t worry!”, the boy said.

“Give me back the mixer, Diego!”, Luther said.

“No! You’re doing it wrong!”

“I’m not doing it wrong!”

When Allison turned around to her two brothers, she saw both fighting for a bowl, the turned-on mixer still in Diego’s hands.

Five stood beside them cheering them on.

“Stop – “

Before Allison could finish speaking everyone besides Five had dough on their clothes and in their hair. The boy had zipped away as soon as he had seen it coming.

While Diego had struggled because Luther had him in a headlock, he had managed to hit the bowl filled with dough and had sent it flying.  
Allison wiped the dough off her face and looked murderously at her brothers.

Five started snickering at his completely doughed up siblings and then full out laughing.

All of his siblings stopped trying to clean themselves and looked at the boy. None of them could remember hearing Five really laugh at any point of their life before. Smirking and grinning maybe but not one real laughing fit.  
Maybe this was worth her favourite dress Allison thought.

“You look ridiculous. Even though I’m a little bit insulted that you seem to be more intimidated by Allison than by me”, Five let his siblings know.

“You’re like five feet tall, you’re not half as frightening as you think”, Luther mumbled.

“Still more deathly than all of combined.”

“Whatever makes you sleep at night, cupcake~! But we all know that you’re actually adorable!”

“Do you really want to die that much, Klaus?”, Five threatened his brother.

“You see? Just too precious!”

“Okay”, Alison said, before Five could start strangling Klaus, “this was all fun and games, but all of you out. Now.”

She didn’t had to tell them twice.  
Maybe Allison was really more intimidating than himself, Five thought as he left the room.

“And Luther and Diego! You pay for my dress!”

~

"You're late", Luther greeted Klaus when he came downstairs for dinner.

"Time is an illusion", the other chanted.

"On my clock it's still eight AM so I think it's not that big of an illusion. And Vanya extra cooked."

"How can you say that?", Klaus asked while sitting down besides Diego, "we literally time travelled two times and our angriest brother is a 58 year old in a body of a kid with the soul of a 20 year old. How could time not be an illusion?"

Klaus looked around.

"By the way where is that little gremlin?"

Alison sighed.

"I don't think he will join us. I ruffled his hair earlier. He yelled at me and disappeared."

"And you just let him?", Diego asked outraged.

"You know him. No one _lets_ him do anything. I think he would run around with untied shoelaces for the rest of his life if someone told him to tie them."

Klaus looked at the green mush in front of him.

"What is this? Is it even edible?"

"It's a spinach casserole", Vanya said shily.

"Ah, sorry Vanya. Sometimes my brain-to mouth-filter just doesn't work~"

"Back to Five once more: Earlier this day I wanted to pat him on the shoulder, and he teleported into another room. Could it be that he got even worse with touching? Now that he is younger?", Diego asked thoughtfully.

Alison looked at him surprised.

"Color me impressed. Since when are you that attentive? I didn't even think Luther and you would notice the issue at all."

Diego gave her an annoyed look.

"I didn't notice. Ever since I can remember not touching each other was a both-sided decision of Five and me", Luther said while wearily eying a noodle.

"I also think that he seems to hate touch even more than yesterday", Vanya said.

Alison frowned.

"Weird. I always believed that it was because he hadn't touched someone in such a long time... but then it would be getting better the younger he gets."

"Maybe if the stars align and the existence of the yeti has been proven he will tell someone someday", Klaus pondered.

Alison looked at her brother annoyed.

"This is serious Klaus."

"I know but we won't know until he shares his thoughts with us... Aaaand I think he will get all our scalps if he finds out that we talk about him behind his back."

The all looked a little bit troubled at that notion.

"Speaking of getting scalps: Do you think he's still as good at fighting as he was before?", Luther asked.

Five zapped into existence behind his bigger brother.

"Don't worry about it Luther I could still kill you with a cotton swap."

Alison’s face lit up.

"I didn't think you would come, Five."

The boy got a plate and sat down at the table.

"I would never miss Vanya’s cooking", he said and winked at his sister.

"Also I love spinach."

"I know", Vanya said smiling at her little brother.

After that the meal was actually nice without anyone talking about scalping or killing someone.

~

The next morning it was Five’s turn to wake up one of his siblings from a nightmare.

“Hey, Vanya. Come wake up.”

With a gasp the woman woke up. She seemed to need a moment to grasp what was going on.

“Oh, Five! I’m so sorry that I fell asleep…”

“Don’t worry, nothing happened. What did you dream about?”

“The first apocalypse…”, Vanya said quietly.

The boy’s eyes got hollow.

“Wait. How old are you? I mean your consciousness?”

“Fourteen.”

That was strange, Vanya thought. The last days it was always ten years of de-ageing. She would have thought he would have completely regressed to his thirteen-year-old-self now.  
But that was a topic for later.

“So, you still remember living in the apocalypse…”

“Only one year. I guess that’s better than before – not that I would know.”

“…do you remember what caused the apocalypse?”

“Yes.”

“I’m so sorry Five. It was my fault, everything. It was my fault that you had to live through all of that.”

Vanya started crying. She felt so weak. Her now _actually_ younger brother just woke up from a year of being in the apocalypse and she was the one having a mental break down.

“Don’t be stupid. It wasn’t really your fault and you know that.”

“I always dream of killing you. All of you. And I always want to stop but I can’t.”

“You won’t lose control again. From now on we’ll look out for you, you moron.”

The woman looked at her younger brother. He seemed to be so honest. A Five that still believed that everything would be good again.

“I’m sorry… I’m so weak, I should be the one looking out for you now and not the other way around.”

Five ignored the allusion to his age.

“You’re the second smartest of us so don’t be such an idiot. It doesn’t fit you. Obviously, you’re not weak at all, you lived through a harder childhood than all of us.”

“That’s was ages ago and it’s definitely not a reason to cause an apocalypse.”

“For me it’s only a year ago… and I thought about it everyday since travelling to 2019. I should have been nicer to you. All of you. But especially you Vanya. I should have looked out dor you more.”

Vanya sniffled.

“You were there for me… you talked to me more than all the others combined. You listened to me playing violin, no one else ever did that… that’s why I missed you so much. You always were my favourite sibling.”

“I still should have done more. Maybe… maybe it could have changed things.”

“If the apocalypse was not my fault then that was definitely not your duty. You were still a kid – or you still are, I guess.”

Five didn’t respond to that. Vanya rubbed her hands against each other.

“So… did you sleep fine, Five?”

“Yes.”

An empty lie but Vanya didn’t call her brother out for it.

“Wanna play chess?”

“Yes”, Vanya said.

It was nice to know that her brother could actually be empathetic if he wanted to, the woman thought. Even if Five being nice always was kind of creepy .

~

At breakfast Five was through and through himself again. Snarky and with no consideration whatsoever. 

“Why would your mind be fourteen now? I don’t get it. I thought you would be thirteen now…”

“I thought so too”, Five started, “but I went over my older self’s equations-“

Luther stared at him: "You... you understand what he - you wrote down with 58? But you're a kid!”

Five looked at him blankly.

"Obviously I understand. Older me wrote all of it down. I can read. And I'm not an incompetent halfwit in contrast to you!”

"I don't like you no matter the age", Luther huffed. Five rolled his eyes.

“So. As I was saying. I thought my vessel was thirteen –“

“Only you would call your body a vessel”, Diego muttered. Five gave him an evil look.

“- and it probably was at first. But I think my body aged because of straining it too much. First, I travelled to you, to 2019, then to 1963 and then I went back a few minutes in that barn. To travel with my ability through time takes a toll on me and doing it three times in two weeks... is not good. It can have varying side effects. Especially when you take as many people with you as I did when we travelled to the past… so I think that’s probably the reason why I still remember the first year in the apocalypse even though my consciousness deaged to my bodies real age. My bodies real age must be fourteen now because my body aged about one year. In the last two weeks.”

“So… you will stop de-aging now? Ehh... mind and body and all that?”, Klaus questioned.

Five knitted his eyebrows.

“My consciousness and my body must be on the same level now, so… yes, I think so. If my calculations are right. And they usually are.”

“Yes. Totally. That’s why you’re stuck in a child’s body – and now even have a child’s mind”, Luther mumbled.

His brother threw a fork at him without looking. It got stuck in the wall right next to Luther's ear.

“What do you mean time traveling takes a toll on you?”, Allison asked worriedly, “will there be other side effects or anything? I mean rapid aging doesn’t sound exactly healthy…”

“I don’t think that will be a problem… I learned my lesson I won’t time travel again for fun… Maybe to put Luther back into the time of the Neanderthals where he belongs, but besides that: no worries.”

Diego and Klaus laughed at that. 

“Why do you always ally against me?”, Luther whined.

“You just make it do easy”, Alison chuckled patting her brother.

~

“Why can’t you just do what we tell you to?”, Luther screamed at his little brother.

“Because it doesn’t make any sense! Why would I want to have one of you follow me around at all times?!”

The other siblings stood beside them watching the chaos unfold. Alison and Diego seemed to want to intervene but to not really know how to do it.

“Because you’re in danger?! You told us! And you’re a child now! Just… listen to us!”’

“I would rather eat a burning cigarette than have one of you stand guard while I’m using the toilet!”

“Why are you always so difficult? Why can’t you just obey for once?!”

Luther took a step towards his brother and lifted his hands to put them on the boys shoulders.

Five quickly put his arms up in a protective posture. Baffled Luther immediatly backs away.

The room went silent.

"Did you think I would hit you?"

The boy seemed to be pissed off by his own behaviour.

"It’s not impossible. We hit each other all the time in the past. You know. One year ago for me."

"But never in such a manner that we needed protection from each other!"

The boy in front of the big man put his hands in his pockets. He felt all of his siblings staring at him.  
They knew that he didn't like being touched. No news there. But thinking that they scare him would hurt them. 

Hurting them or being honest? Five sighed deeply. If he remembered correctly his fiftyeight year old self was better at being an asshole. So talking it was. Great.

"You're an adult. A pretty large one actually."

"...so?"

"I don't trust adults. Obviously."

"Oh, Five", Alison whispered sadly. Klaus and Vanya just looked at him sympathetic while Diego seemed to want out of this emotional shit nearly as much as his little brother.

"I don't understand”, Luther said.

Five rolled his eyes.

"For all of you it was probably decades ago because you're old," - Five calling them old was so new and weird for everyone - "but I still lived with dad one year ago. Not exactly best father of the year material! And I literally had no contact to other adults - besides mom who is a robot - in my life!"

A lie. But he hoped he never had to be honest about that.

"...but why would you feel the need to protect yourself? He never hit us?"

Five sneered.

"Probably not you? Because you always did what he wanted? But the rest of us, right?"

Diego and Klaus nodded. Alison and Vanya looked shocked.

"But don't worry. I'm not scared of you. Just reflexes. I know that you're way too imbecile to hurt me."

Luther looked dumbfounded. He had learned that his father really wasn't that great but he would have never thought that he hit his siblings. He didn't know what to say.

"...what does imbecile mean?"

Five gave his brother a creepy forced smile. How came he had all the brain cells in this family?

"It means that you're a very nice person, Luther."

"Oh. Okay."

"Do you want to talk about it?", Vanya asked shily.

Five stared at her.

"Obviously not?! I would rather skin myself with a carrot peeler than be in a room with all of you talking about my feelings! And stop looking at me like that! All of you! It's no biggie! He did it to all of us – or some of us! And dad is dead, so whatever."

Five took a deep breath.

"And now I will go get some coffee. And if someone follows me to have a heart-to-heart I will squeeze their eyes out with a pickle."

"I don't thinks that's physically possible!", Klaus called after his brother. The boy flipped him off without turning around.

Diego scratched his beard.

"So he's as easy to deal with as always... I didn't remember him being such a little shit when he was that age for the first time."

Alison pursed her lips.

"He was never really in touch with his own emotions."

"That's an understatement", Diego replied.

"He talks when you're alone with him...", Vanya interjected.

"But only if he can't avoid it", Alison said.

After that it was quiet for a short time.

"Does imbecile really mean nice?"

All his siblings gave Luther an incredulous look.

~

After that the day was tense. Five avoided his siblings like the plague.  
All the while the other Hargreeves tried to look after their little brother without him noticing. Naturally, that was a futile attempt. Even with a much younger consciousness than all his siblings Five was more paranoid than any of them hence he always picked up on them being there and teleported into another room.  
At the end of the day everyone was exhausted and bad-tempered. No one wanted to have a family meal and Five went straight to bed as soon as he was sure that none of his siblings where following him.

~

The next thing Five remembered after going to sleep was someone touching his forehead. He instantly jumped up and hit the offender straight in the face.  
Only there was no offender. Just Diego. Startled the man jumped up and backed away.

“Why would you touch me!?”

The boy felt himself starting to tremble. Diego came a little bit closer again.

“You seemed feverish, I just wanted to check your temperature.”

“Well, don’t!”

“Okay, noted.”

Diego lifted his hand and instantly Five felt himself hyperventilating even more.

“Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Finally, Diego noticed what was going on.

“Are you… having a panic attack?”

“No”, Five snapped at him.

“Uh… ok, just calm down. Breath in and out.”

“Wow. Thanks. Wouldn’t have thought of that. You’re so helpful. Ever thought about becoming a therapist?”

The man just looked at his smaller brother helplessly.

“Go away, you dimwit!”

“Nope. Insult me all you want but I won’t leave you.”

Five took in a shaky breath. His body shouldn’t respond like that. He was safe. And he wasn’t fragile. He should just… get over everything.

It took nearly a quarter-hour till the boy calmed down again. Diego stood awkwardly beside him all the time. Even though his brother obviously didn’t knew what to do it helped that someone was there.

“Go away now”, Five said after he started breathing normally again.

“I… don’t think that would be a good idea?”

“Go away, _please_?”

Diego shook his head and sat down again. The silence that fell over them was awkward. Diego started counting the leaves of the plastic plant that stood beside his brother’s bed.  
After some time Five started giving his brother side glances.

“Sorry, that I hit you.”

“No problem”, Diego said so quickly that he nearly stumbled over his words.

“And… sorry for insulting you. It was – nice – of you to stay.”

“For you always, little brother.”

“…don’t test me.”

Diego smirked. After that it got quiet again.

"Why do you hate touching so much?”, Diego broke the silence, “I mean you were never a big hugger, but you weren't that inclined to it when we were younger. Since you came back you seem to really despise it – old-you and young-you.”

The boy looked up at his Brother, his eyes partly covered by his fringe. He looked more anxious than Diego had ever seen him before. 

"I..."

Five hesitated, did he really want to talk about this?

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. But I think it would help to tell someone", Diego said.

"I - I want to. But you will think I'm weak after I tell you."

The man laughed.

"I know you, Five. And I know that you survived fortyfive years in the apocalypse. Even if you don't remember. And don't tell the others but even before that you were the most badass of us. So yeah, you could tell me that you're afraid of the easter bunny and I would still not think that you're weak."

At that Five smiled slightly. Maybe it would really be okay. And he really needed to tell somone. He could't go on having a near nervous breakdown every time someone grazed him.

“Okay. I will tell you, just – just let me brace myself.”

After that it got quiet again. Diego waited and as he didn’t really expect it anymore his brother started to talk in a quiet voice.

"There was someone with me. At the beginning of the apocalypse. In the aftermath I figured out that he was from the commission and had problems with his suitcase. I think he was also stuck. Very ironic actually: the only person I meet in the apocalypse and he also has problems with time travel."

Five stared at the wall lost in thoughts. Diego waited. He didn't want to push his brother.

"In the beginning we got on just fine. But we were lonely. Both of us. I didn't question it when he started touching me a little bit more. I kind of liked it actually. I had already been alone for half a year at that point."

Diego’s heart stuttered. He didn't like the direction this was going.

"But you know - he liked me to much. It got very intimate - you could say. He tried stuff… I didn’t want him to do."

Five laughed dry.

"I killed him. Maybe he is the reason why older me didn't like to be touched. Or something else happened. I don't know. But he's most definitely is the reason why I don't like being touched."

Diego felt himself getting mind numbingly furious at a moment’s notice. He wanted to punch something. Or someone. He wanted to avenge his brother. To go back in time and punch everybody in the face that was even slightly guilty for Five having to live the life that he had lived.  
Then Diego stopped. He saw the boy looking up at him anxiously. Anxious what his brother would think. If he would still think that he was badass or if he would disown him.  
Diego took a deep breath. There would be a moment for him to be angry and maybe destroy a few punchbags. But now he needed to be there for his little brother. Who wasn’t an fifty eight year old assassin anymore but just a fourteen year old that had had one really shitty year. 

“I’m so sorry, Five.”

The man didn’t know what to say. He had no idea how to comfort his brother. Hitting someone – that he could do, but emotions…

“I hope you know it’s not your fault.”

The boy huffed.

“You know nothing really bad ever happened –“

Diego instantly felt lighter.

“- but I felt so disgusted by my self for ever letting it get that far… I was just so lonely.”

“You shouldn’t feel disgusted by yourself. I can’t say I completely understand how you feel as it would be a lie but you’re no less worth because of what happened. And I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you but I will be from now on.”

“You could not possible have been there. You shouldn’t feel sorry for that.”

It got quiet for a moment. Diego started squirming in his seat. Then the boy turned up his nose.

“And I don’t need a dumbass like you to protect me.”

So back to deflecting, Diego thought. 

“Okay. But if there ever would be even the slightest possibility that you might need me, I would be there for you, my highness.”

Five punched his brother.

“…Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: The idea with the man from the commission that is with Five at the beginning of the apocalypse is NOT my idea. It's from this series: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904056 /A Ripple in Time and Space by tenacioussurrender. If you haven't already read the story, you should do it. It's awesome. (and don't worry I asked if I could use the idea).  
> Second: I hope you liked the chapter as it was pretty exhausting to write. And also: I didn't say that before, but I'm sorry if my English isn't that good, it's not my mother tongue.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a warning: There is a lot of Non-Consensual Touching in this chapter but nothing too bad.

After the first week, of Five's younger self’s comeback, life in the Hargreeves manor went on almost peacefully. Or as peacefully as life could go on with five troubled adults, a ghost and an assassin that recently turned into a child.  
His siblings always had activities that they wanted to do with Five. He knew those were merely weak excuses to keep an eye on him, but he didn’t complain. It was nice to spend some time – or nearly all his time – with his siblings. And it was nice to know that they actually cared for him, in the apocalypse he had always wondered if they even missed him.

It all went to hell on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. Five had gone to the library with Klaus in tow. Klaus had laughed at his brother for wanting to get a book about quantum physics, but Alison had told him to either go with Five or watch a documentary about the moon with Luther. The therapist, that the man had recently started seeing, recommended direct confrontation with traumatic memories. The medium was fairly sure that there would be crying involved, so he went with his little brother and left the job to Alison.  
The dark-skinned woman was a big advocate of Five's learning. Because after a long discussion with the boy, they settled for Five not having go to school but having to get his GED to go to college.  
Not that anyone particularly thought that he would need quantum physics or any learning at all for that, but if it made Five happy Klaus wouldn’t object. Or at least not too much.

So they went to the library, talked to a librarian, Five was gifted a cookie by an old woman for being ‘such a clever little boy’, Klaus made a dumb joke because of that, his brother punched him, Klaus ate the cookie, they finally got the book and then went back home. 

All in all, it was a pretty nice afternoon. On their way back Klaus talked about going to his favourite dealer but his little brother told him, that he shouldn’t go there with a kid and that he should be a better role model for his younger brother. The medium ruffled the boy's hair and said that he may be dumb but not that dumb and that he had always known that Five’s one and only role model was the boy himself or no one at all.

As soon as they stepped on to the Hargreeves premises, Five realised that something was wrong. Klaus didn't seem to notice as he was still strolling forward without a care in the world. The boy signaled his brother to stop walking.

“´What is it, little bro?”

“Just listen”, the boy whispered.

Klaus waited a moment.

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Exactly, it’s way too quiet. All our siblings should be home.”

“Maybe… they are all sitting in front of the TV watching Luther cry?”

Five gave his brother an irritated look.

“What?”, Klaus said, “that’s what I would do!”

The boy shook his head: “Just… follow me. Quietly!”

They walked around the house to the exterior wall of the living room. Through the window they witnessed a rather ridiculous scene. Or it would be ridiculous if their siblings weren’t involved.  
Six men with white suits, cylinders, pink ties and black sunglasses stood in the room. They looked like a blend of men in black and cheap magicians.  
Four of them held their siblings hostage while the other two stood on the side awkwardly. All of them had unnecessarily large shotguns strapped to their shoulders. Vanya was unconscious, Allison was gagged, and all of the Hargreeves were kept in check with guns to their head. Obviously they knew about the power of every Umbrella Academy member – Five hoped that he hadn’t been the one to tell them.  
Luther and Diego struggled half-heartedly against their captors but seemed to understand the hopelessness of their situation. Even if they could escape and fight, they couldn’t be sure their sisters would be alright.  
In front of the men was a woman in a silly, pink rockabilly dress with white dots. By her side stood a dark-skinned woman in her late twenties dressed all in black. The Handler and Diego’s Ex – Lila? – if Five remembered right. His memories were pretty fuzzy, and he realised, that they had talked way to less about the upcoming danger. He didn’t have all the information.

Five started going through every option that could be the next possible step of action. One idea more ridiculous than the other. Eight against two – or one and a half – and if he remembered right his brother's Ex was more powerful than all of them combined. Not verry good odds.

“Don’t do anything dumb”, Klaus whispered. The boy looked at the man, only to see his dilated pupils. His heart sank as he remembered the other's a little too long toilet visit at the library.

“You’re high right?”

Klaus nodded shakily. So, no help from Klaus or Ben.

“Fuck”, Five cursed, “fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Inside the room the blond woman started talking: “You realise that we can hear you, right cutie? We’ve already waited so long for you; don’t you know that that’s rude? Didn’t your mom teach you any manners? I could help you with that if you would just join us inside!”

Klaus took his brother’s hand.

“Don’t do anything dumb!”

“There is no other option and you know it. Let go of me.”

“No. If you go, I go.”

The Handler started talking again: “You know my men are getting tired… one of their hands could slip.”

“Let. Go. Of. Me.”

“No!”

Five rolled his eyes and bit Klaus’ hand firmly. The man screamed and pulled back automatically. The next Klaus knew his little brother stood in front of the Handler with his hands stuck into the pockets of his shorts looking up at the woman coldly.  
His other siblings stared at their brother terrified. 

“Are you dumb?”

“Five?! Go away!”

The boy ignored them. The Handler looked at Five joyfully as if he were the birthday cake she had been looking forward to the whole year.

“Just the man we were waiting for! How wonderful it is to see you!”

The men looked even more awkward now. They obviously didn’t know that they were searching for a child. Luther and Diego continued to protest, Alison seemed to be seconds away from crying and Vanya still didn’t move.  
Five thought, that maybe if she were awake, they could have a chance… But that was neither here nor there. He couldn’t change the current situation.

“Oh. Would you please shut up, I really need to talk with this adorable brother of yours! If you don’t zip it, I might have to kill one of you…”

Instantly the struggling and shouting stopped.

“What do you want?”, Five asked.

“Oh. Nothing too wild sweetie, I just want you to come with me and I swear I won’t harm any of your precious siblings. Not even the dumb one that will come to your rescue in less than a second!”

In that moment Klaus ran into the room armed with one of their father guns and screaming: “For Five!”  
Promptly Lila blinked behind the man and stole his weapon before he could even aim at someone. The woman held the gun at Klaus temple and the man stopped moving. 

Five suppressed the urge to borrow his head in his hands. Why was he always surrounded by idiots? The Handler took a step towards the boy and started stroking his cheek. He slapped her hand away.

“Now, now. Save your siblings, come with me and no more of this revulsion.”

She put her hand on Five's face again. This time he didn’t stop her.

“I wonder… how does it feel to be thirteen again?”

“Probably miles better than it feels to be you. How do I know that my family is save?”

“Do you really think I would go back on my words? You hurt me, oh, old friend of mine!”

Five raised his eyebrows while the Handler adjusted his tie.

“Even if I could remember you, I doubt I would remember you as a friend. So, you and this boy band of yours will stay away if I come with you?”

All of his siblings were kept silent but looked positively upset.

“Yes, exactly! This sharp mind of yours is precisely what I missed! And those dandy knee socks…”

She winked at Five and he felt a shiver running down his spine. The boy tried to look at his siblings and not at the woman that was now pinching his cheek. It didn’t escape his attention that Diego looked at Lila pleadingly. His brother seemed to think that the woman still had doubts in relation to her ‘mother’. Seeing how Lila stoically avoided to look at Diego, Five thought that the man could be right.

“Do I get any kind of reassurance that they are safe?”

“Are you really in a position to negotiate, Five?”

The boy smiled creepily: “I may not be able to save all of them, but it wouldn’t be any trouble to kill you a third time.”

“Oh, don’t say that, you’re gonna break my heart!”

The handler slapped Five lightly.

“Why wouldn’t I do that if I think that they would all die either way?”

“Okay, okay, little Five. You win. Take my hand. All of the others will teleport away before I do. Good?”

Five nodded stiffly. Maybe he could still get away…

“So, knock them out, set your suitcases right and then on it goes! Lila you stay with me, take Fivies other hand!”

“Could you stop it with those pet names?”

“Oh, I don’t think you can make another request, cutie! So, time for last words!”

Five silently saluted his siblings. Then they were all knocked out by a dull hit to the head by the men in white. The boy only just saw his siblings hit the ground before everything went black.

~

When Five woke up he sat in an armchair. A very comfy one with soft upholstery. The boy groaned; his vision was still blurry.

“Good morning, cutie! Did you sleep well?”

The sickly-sweet voice brought Five's memories back. The Handler. His siblings! Alarmed he jumped up and instantly got dizzy.

“No, no, no. Don’t stand up. You’re not in the right shape for that and there is no need for insubordination.”

Gloved hands pushed him back into the armchair. Finally Five's vision got clearer. The Handler sat in front of him smiling. She sat on a couch that was colour-coordinated to the armchair he was sitting in. They were in a beautiful white room with old but fancy looking furniture and a lot of golden decoration. Behind the blonde woman stood Diego’s crazy ex-girlfriend.

“Nice to see you awake again, cutie. I missed those beautiful eyes of yours.”

The boy groaned again.

“My siblings. Are they okay?”

“Straight to business. As always. Doesn’t matter if you’re fifty-eight or thirteen, huh?”

“Just tell me”, Five grumbled.

“Okay, okay. No need to be this bossy. I’m not really into that! But your siblings are doing well. No need to worry your pretty little head!”

The boy nodded faintly. That was good at least. Now he just had to blink to get away and forget that all of this ever happened.

“Ah! And before you try this neat little trick of yours-“

In that moment Five tried to teleport and promptly a severe pain went through him. The Handler giggled.

“Yes, exactly that will happen. So be a good little boy and do what you are told.”

“What did you do to me?”, Five asked angry and maybe little bit frightened – but mostly angry. If he couldn’t blink away, it wouldn’t be easy to bolt.

“Nothing, I just gave you a new accessory so you wouldn’t be naughty.”

The boy turned his head to the expensive looking mirror beside him. A weird looking collar adorned his neck. It was made of something metallic and had a flashing green light attached to it.  
He would have to try to get it off later. But he needed the Handler and Lila to be gone for that.  
He looked to the dark-skinned girl. Diego had told him that she hated Five but now she was looking at him almost pityingly. 

“What do you want from me?”

“Oh, don’t worry, nothing too bad”, the blond woman said with a wave of her hand, “I just need your help… but we will talk about that later. First we will make a tour and I will introduce you to everybody.”

“A tour? What do you want to show me?”

“Oh, silly of me. I want to show you the building and the people around here!”

“Where is ‘here’´?”

“This, my dear, is the agency!”

The Handler looked at Five expectantly, but he just shrugged.

“Which agency?”

“Not _an_ agency, _the_ agency!”

“Okay. That explains exactly nothing.”

“Right. You lost a lot of your memories… you know that you worked for the commission?”

“Yes. So, I was told.”

“And you know that the commission is an organisation that manages the space-time continuum and sees to everything working out as planned?”

The boy nodded.

“Did you really think the commission is the only time organisation?”, the Handler gave a high, clear laugh, “The time industry is a booming business! The agency is the next largest organisation after the commission. Their strongest opponent! So obviously the agency celebrated a high-ranking member of the commission – me – changing sides. They welcomed me with open arms…”

The Handler stood up gracefully and sat down on the rest of Five’s armchair. Carefully she pushed an unruly lock of hair behind his ear. Her touch burned on his skin. Where his siblings’ touches were unpleasant hers were downright scathing.

“And as I am in a position of power again, I need my best man back!”

She was uncomfortably close to Five. He felt her breath on his cheek, it smelled like a mixture of mint and strawberries. The boy felt sick.

“Why do you want me back? I’m not able to do the same stuff I did before. Hell, I don’t even remember most of it! Your little miss perfect is probably a way better employee than I ever was.”

Five believed to remember Lila fighting superior to Diego on his best days. He knew for certain that he couldn’t fight that good.

“Yes… Lila is my greatest pride, but you were the one for me Five. You were my first and biggest success. We were a team. I just want you back even if it is a Thirteen-year-old. Don’t make a fuss out of it, just work with Lila and me! It will be fun!” 

The woman in front of the boy seemed so excited but it was a strange kind of excitement that made Five’s skin crawl. He didn’t even need to know what his siblings told him to know that she was bad news for everyone.

“Do I even have other options?”

The handler smiled at Five sugary, while playing with his hair.

“Obviously not, silly! …unless you want your siblings to suffer for you?”

Fives bod tensed again.

“Are they in danger?”

“Not now but they could be again in”, the Handler snapped her fingers, “no time!”

She leaned forward to whisper in Fives ear: “So do we have a deal, cutie?”

The boy nodded stiffly: “I will do what you want me to do.”

The Handler clapped her hands.

“Wonderful that we understand each other! Now come on, I still want to give you a tour and show you off a little bit!”

“Show me off?”

“Obviously! You’re a legend way beyond the circle of the commission!”

“I can only repeat: I don’t have the same talents as before and I don’t even remember most of it.”

Smiling brightly the woman adjusted Fives metal collar and swiped imaginary dust off his shoulder.

“Oh, don’t worry cutie. You will learn again. Especially with this adorable exterior! It will be so easy to get people to trust you!”

She looked straight into Fives eyes their faces only millimetres apart. 

The so far silent Lila cleared her throat: “Do you really have to be so touchy with him, mom? I mean not that I like him or anything but if I understood correctly, he is an actual child now, right?”

The blond woman backed away.

“Oh, maybe I overdid it. But you know how it is, dear, I just want to keep my possessions close to me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there is some kind of story again besides talking! Let me know if you like it :D


	6. Chapter 6

When Klaus woke up, he felt as if a whole truck had hit him. What the hell was in those fucking suitcases? Once his view got clearer again, he was able to see his siblings around him.

Vanya was still laying on the floor with Alison hovering over her and Luther and Diego stood over him arguing. How could it be any different?

“What the fuck did you think you where doing kicking those guys away?!”

“I was trying to protect you Diego!”

“I don’t _need_ your protection! Because of you they got away with Five!”

Luther looked hurt. Klaus groaned.

“Boys, boys stop arguing. That won’t help anyone.”

“Klaus, is right. Stop this”, Alison said still looking at her unconscious sister, “I think Vanya is okay but could you please get her onto the sofa, Luther?”

Suddenly forgetting about his fight with Diego, the man walked to his sisters and cooped the smaller one up into his arms and onto the sofa. His other siblings followed him and sat down beside them.  
Klaus – who still had a throbbing headache – groaned again. They sat there for few minutes in strained silence before Diego started talking again.

“We have to get Five back. Now. We promised to protect him and in the end, he protected us. Again”, the man said agitated.

Luther nodded: “This is our fault.”

“Your fault! If you hadn’t–“

“Stop it! Our little brother just got kidnapped and you two can’t do anything but fight!”

The two men stopped arguing again looking ashamed.

Diego was the first one to talk again: “I’m sorry. You’re right we’re all at fault. I j-just… Five ha-ad just started opening up t-to me and now…”

Diego’s whole pose got from angry to sad in a few seconds as if the weight of what had just happened only now got to him.

Alison grabbed her brother’s arm: “It’s okay. We will get him back.”

Diego only nodded weakly while Luther started looking determined again.

“Yes. We will get him back. We just need to be a team.”

Klaus laughed hysterically: “What are we gonna do? Naruto run in to the base and get our little boy back?",

"Maybe. Maybe I will do exactly that", Luther said.

"We don't even know where the base is... or when", Diego said.

"Exactly! I love our Fivey just as much as the next guy, but we need a plan", Klaus said.

Alison raised her eyebrows.

"We are in really deep shit when Klaus has become our voice of reason."

All siblings – besides Vanya – nodded. That was something they could all agree on. The room got quiet again.

Klaus coughed: “So… Five started opening up to you too, Diego?”

The man nodded.

“I’m kind of disappointed now. I thought I was the only one!”

“He talked to me and Vanya too...”, Alison said softly.

Klaus pouted: “Now I don’t feel special at all! …but he didn’t made you a swan right?”

“What?”

“He made me an origami swan for staying sober for a day.”

“That's cute”, Alison said.

“Why can he do origami?”, Luther asked.

Klaus shrugged: “Bored in the apocalypse? He said he would break my legs if I tell someone.”

“At least he's at the right height for that”, Luther said.

Klaus chuckled softly.

“…not to ruin the mood, but how did they defeat you so easily?”

Diego pondered.

“I don’t know… it was all so quick. Vanya was upstairs playing violin and I sat in the living room watching Luther cry while Alison tried to sooth him…”

“Ha, called it!”, Klaus said looking at Ben. The man rolled his eyes while Diego stared at his brother confused. Klaus just waved his hand.

“Forget it. Keep talking.”

“They came downstairs with Vanya in their hold so we couldn’t really fight without risking to hurt her and Lila was quicker than Alison and stopped her from talking before she could rumour anyone… It wasn’t a really our most glorious fight, if I’m honest.”

Alison checked her fingernails and Luther coughed embarrassed. Klaus thought about his part of the fight and decided that he couldn’t really blame his siblings for anything.

“Okay… what’s the plan now?”

~

A few hundred years and thousand of miles away the Handler walked through the base of the agency with Five and Lila in tow. She kept on chattering while they went through a noble, seemingly endless corridor. Every few feet there was a golden door standing out against the white wall.

"I didn't ask before... but how can you not be dead? If I remember correctly, I killed you”, interrupted Five the meaningless banter of the woman.

The Handler winked at the boy: "Magic, cutie, magic!" 

Five rolled his eyes and even Lila seemed to be irritated by her mother.

Finally, they reached the end of the corridor. The Handler opened a large golden door with bronze accents worked into the metal. On the other side awaited them a room full of mahogany tables with old looking computers on them and uncomfortable looking swivel chairs in front of them. It would have looked like an old office room if the tables weren’t arranged so weirdly. Instead of in lines they stood in circles as if they were meant for a lot of self-help groups.  
On every chair sat a person dressed like the men that were accompanying the Handler and Lila when they came to the Hargreeves mansion. There was a lot of chattering, typing and some other sounds Five couldn’t really identify. 

“What’s up with these clothes? And why does the whole set up look like a grandmother’s study room mixed with the interior of a cheap Disney castle?”

The blonde woman giggled: “If I knew you were into fashion, I would have already gotten you new shorts, darling! …The clothes are the dress code! Black was already taken by the commission, you know? And the cylinders and all those gold… our chef is a little bit extravagant! You should see those dresses that she deems acceptable for a workspace!”

The Handler shook her head indignantly. The boy glanced at the dress that the woman wore but decided not to say anything. His neck hurt, why did this collar have to be so heavy?  
The blond woman rang a bell that stood on a table at the left side of the room. The rest of the table jammed with a few phonographs, five speakers and something that looked like hundreds of pudding cups.  
At the ping of the bell everything became quiet immediately and every person in the room looked to the Handler.

“A wonderful evening to all of you!”, the Handler said. The woman was now standing behind Five, her gloved hands on his shoulders.

“I’m here to make an announcement: My dearest employee – and dare I say my old friend – Number Five is now joining the agency!”

Right away a not so quiet whisper broke out in the whole hall.

“Five?!”; “…do you think it’s really _that_ Five?”; “Does she mean the child?!”; “Isn’t he a little young?”; “Did she abduct the boy?”; “She’s so weird…”

“Shush now! To answer a few of your questions: Yes, this boy is Five. And yes, he is a child… You know, time travel is a dangerous thing. Something went really wrong you could say. But I guarantee that he’s still better at his job than all of you.”

Five tried to stare everyone down that was looking at him while trying to escape the Handler’s hold. The Handler’s grasp on him only got firmer the more he squirmed. A woman with short red hair raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“What team will he be assigned to? Because I would love to offer him a place in mine!”

The whispering got louder again.

“I want him on my team too!”; “But we need him more!”; “Yes, Marius is doing very poorly at the moment you might really need him…”; “Hey, don’t say that I’m right beside you!”

The Handler giggled, now almost massaging Five’s shoulders: “While I love your boldness, I fear I have to decline, Marry. Because Five is already assigned to the team Fedora which I’m setting up as my personal team at the moment. So, team Beanie and team Deerstalker, if you may shut up now!”

A little quieter she explained to Five: “You see in the commission everyone worked alone but here it’s all about team work. Bullshit if you ask me, but at least it will keep anyone from pulling such a stunt as you did!”

The blond woman led Five around the room never loosening her iron grip on him. He felt like he was shown around like a prized pet or a particularly favoured toy. He got offered a lot of hands that he didn’t shook, was complimented for a lot of things he didn’t remember and got asked question he couldn’t answer. 

“That mission in Singapore _brilliant_ I gotta say!”; “What you did to that Indian minister: So, so clever!”

Finally, after half an eternity the introduction was over. Five felt lightheaded. He didn’t really know why. Maybe it was a side-effect of his powers being suppressed or because there were so many people around him or because he hadn’t eaten enough. He didn’t know and at this point he didn’t really care anymore.

“So, I guess I think that was enough for one day. You can all get to know each other in no time. You all know about Five’s fight with the commission, right?”

The room got uncomfortably quiet.

“I think we can all agree that he needs a few days disciplining before we can work with him, huh?”

The woman lifted one hand from Five’s shoulders only to start stroking his cheek.

“I mean: You know you were bad, right?”, the Handler asked looking into the boy’s eyes, “so you will be good and go with Lila, right?”

“It’s not as if I have another option, right?”, the boy asked clenching his teeth, “and stop touching me. I won’t run. I mean it’s not as if I can run anywhere.”

“So cute to see you act like a child again! In the old days you would have never shown that something was bothering you!” 

Five flinched away as the woman pinched his cheek. Everyone looked at them weirded out. The red-haired woman – Marry – from earlier raised her hand again.

“Not to overstep any of my permits… but is he here willingly? Because you now in paragraph five line three of our workers’ code it says–“

The Handler interrupted the woman: “He is here willingly. Right, Five?”

The boy forced a smile: “Right.”

No one in the room seemed to be convinced but no one said something else either.

~

A few minutes later Lila dragged Five through another corridor that wasn’t quite as shiny as the one they came from. The Handler had told the woman to “bring him to the room”. 

“You know, you can let go I won’t run. I couldn’t even teleport if I wanted to.”

Lila gave the boy a calculating look.

“Maybe you’re even telling the truth. You’re weird.”

She kept on dragging him forward.

After a few minutes walking in silence she asked: “Are you actually a child again?”

“I think _actually _is the wrong word for my case. You know as I’m a fifty-eight-year-old who’s body got de-aged first and after that the consciousness too. But yes. I don’t remember anything after my fourteenth year of life… and I also feel like – you know – like I’m fourteen.”__

__“You don’t really behave like a normal child.”_ _

__“How many children do you know?”_ _

__“Touché.”_ _

__“Also, I don’t think I ever was a normal child. I mean I was brought up to be a low budget superhero.”_ _

__Five chuckled lamely. Lila squinted her eyes._ _

__“Diego told me… your father was pretty horrible, right? And I guess so was your childhood?”_ _

__“That’s what he said? Diego is such a wuss”, Five said smiling, “yes our father was an asshole, but I had my siblings so… it wasn’t that bad.”_ _

__Again walked awhile without talking._ _

__“You really wouldn’t flee without that collar?”_ _

__“Nope.”_ _

__“Why?_ _

__“Because I haven’t yet tried this delicious chocolate pudding I’ve seen.”_ _

__Lila rolled her eyes: “Haha.”_ _

__“You know why.”_ _

__“Do your siblings even know what length you are ready to go for them? My mother told me a lot of what you did for them, but Diego always only said that you’re an asshole.”_ _

__Five tried not to look hurt: “I don’t know. Doesn’t matter I guess.”_ _

__“But… don’t you want to get away for yourself?”_ _

__Five thought about that for a few seconds._ _

__“I don’t know. I mean, I’m not exactly happy here, but I spent the last year with only two goals in mind: save the world and save my siblings. The world won’t end anymore and my siblings are safe now and will stay safe as long as I'm here. There are worse deals.”_ _

__“You know that you might have to kill people again? Innocent people?”_ _

__The boy considered that and shrugged._ _

__“No. I won’t do that. If I understand my older self's - it's still weird to say that - actions right, he - or I - acted on simple mathematics. A few hundred against 7 billion of people. That’s fair. But this time there is nothing even comperable at stake... I guess if I don't find a better way, I will take the easiest way out of the deal. I could just make it look like an accident.”_ _

__Lila swallowed._ _

__"Wouldn't that mean that you let us win?”_ _

__The boy closed his eyes._ _

__“What do you win? The death of a boy that barely remembers you. Congratulations.”_ _

__“But don't you want to live?”_ _

__“I guess I would like to try living again... but what can you do?", Five shrugged again, "I lived one year in complete isolation and even after being back from the apocalypse I only got one week with my siblings. Now I'm held captive by an organisation that wants to turn me into a killer machine, which I already seem to have been in my last life - if you can call it that – and all the while I keep dreaming about the people I killed, who I can't even remember... Maybe I just don't deserve a nice life, or all the luck was given away to other people. Who knows?”_ _

__Lila looked at the boy sadly. He seemed so old even though he was a child again. The hardened assassin – she got to know only a few weeks ago – would have never opened up to a known enemy.  
Showing her thoughts to the back of her mind she started dragging the boy forward once more. They stopped in front of a metal door that Lila opened by laying her hand on the lock. She shoved Five into the little room determined not to look at him. Before she could close the door the boy raised his voice once more._ _

__“It’s why you hate me, right? I killed someone who was precious to you. That’s why you asked about the killing of innocent people.”_ _

__It was more of a statement than a question. The woman nodded._ _

__“My parents.”_ _

__“I’m sorry”, Five whispered and as Lila looked into his eyes, she knew that he meant it. She didn’t see the indifference she saw in 1963 but just the true remorse of an actual child._ _

__“Wasn’t really you.”_ _

__With that the woman closed the door and walked away as fast as she could._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, that this took so long, I didn't have a lot of time lots of adult stuff to do... Hope you still like it and leave a coment :D


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